As shown in the table, PepsiCo, Inc. is the largest food & beverage business in the U.S with over USD60,000 million total revenue (2018). This makes the Company very interesting subject for this project since I wanted to gain insight on how the Company is able to maintain its competitive advantage.

The above table shows the stock prices of the top 5 players in the food & beverage industry (PEP=PepsiCo; KO - Coca Cola; PM=Philip Morris; ADM= Archer Daniels; TSN= Tyson Foods). It can be seen the PepsiCo stocks are pretty much stable over the last 5 years as compared to the other top 5 players.

Food & Beverage and Tobacco industries come mostly from New York.

The firms in Illinois are bigger than those in Arkansas, Georgia and New York in terms of median Revenue.

US Consumer F&B and Tobacco industry is heavily concentrated by competition. Few large firms dominate although the intensity of the competition is very high.

China still lags behind US F&B and Tobacco industries in terms of total revenue, total operating income, total net income and percentage of profitable enterprises. While this is the case, we can still see that China's trend for these metrics are upward compared to the US firms which is experiencing some decline.

Typical company performance for US F&B and Tobacco firms is going up while for China, the trend seems to be relatively flat with some downward trends for median net margin.

US vs. China, 2018, F&B and Tobacco industry efficiency. China has a higher inventory days. Cash conversion cycle is around the same level. US has the higher asset turnover and return on assets. Overall, US has the better utilization.

US vs. China, 2018, F&B and Tobacco industry financial health. China has a better current ratio and liability-asset ratio, but US firms

Supply Chain: Capital Goods -> Transportation -> F&B Tobacco -> Food & Staples Retailing. Food & Staples retailing has the higher revenue but lowest operating and net margin and profitability among the 4 industries. F&B and Tobacco does not have high revenue but has a good operating and net margin as well as profitability.

Capital goods has the better overall growth among the 4 industries.

F&B and Tobacco has a good ROA, return on capital and productivity.

PEP and ADM are the largest in terms of revenue, however, ADM has the highest cost among the industries. TSN is the third largest but the gap in terms of revenue and costs are much wider compared to PEP and ADM.

US Firms have generally larger revenue and costs compared to China Firms.

PEP is both large and highly profitable. ADM and TSN are large but not profitable. 

Generally, China company profits are way below their US counterparts except for GZMT which is small but considered highly profitable.

KHC is the largest in terms of asset, but operating profit/ asset < 10%. PM has the highest operating profit with lesser assets. PEP results are also good - high profitability.

Compared to US Firms, China firms generally have lower operating income and total assets. Exception is GZMT which has the highest operating income and assets among the Chinese Firms.

ADM has a very high revenue but very low profitability.  PEP on the other hand has almost the same revenue but with significantly higher profitability. MO has the highest profitability but lower revenue.

PM has a good ROA but worst financial health. KHC on the other hand had the worst ROA but good financial health. PEP's ROA and financial health are generally good.

PepsiCo, Inc. is ranked no. 1 in terms of total revenue in 2018 followed closely by Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.

Altria Group is ranked no. 1 in terms of operating margin, whereas PepsiCo, Inc is ranked at No. 10.

Monster Beverage has the highest return on asset (ranked no. 1). PepsiCo is ranked No. 3 in terms of ROA. Surprisingly, Kraft Heinz Co has a negative ROA and is ranked the last among the F&B and Tobacco companies in the US.

Based on the above probability distribution matrix, the return on assets range from -0.1 to 0.3. Most of the F&B and Tobacco firms' ROA fall within the 2nd and 3rd quartiles.

PepsiCo Inc. has a high gross profit, net income and total revenue among the top 5 players. It was the second highest in terms of operating income and profit before tax.

PepsiCo Inc has the third highest margins (operating, net and gross margins). It has the second highest in terms of ROA.

Based on the table, PepsiCo Inc has the very good overall return of investment among the top 5 competitors. It has the highest ROE while second highest in terms of ROC and ROA.

PepsiCo Inc. has a good overall results in terms of key indicators. It has the highest in terms of return to equity, growth of total revenue and payable/receivable days ratio. It was the second in terms of ROA and inventory turnover ratio, while the third best in terms of liabilities asset ratio, net margin and gross margin.

PepsiCo's rank in terms of profitability is High and it's Financial Health is assessed to be Normal. However, there's a mixed assessment in terms of PepsiCo's Growth and Operational Efficiency where it ranked High in Net Income while Low for Free Cash Flow (Growth). In terms of Operational Efficiency, the cost to total revenue was ranked high, however, inventory days and cash conversion cycle are ranked Low.

PepsiCo's total revenue and operating income trend are somewhat stable. Coca-Cola's revenue is declining, however, operating income has been increasing since 2018.

PepsiCo's gross and operating margins are somewhat stable. Net margin and ROA on the other hand had seen some increase in 2018. Overall, PepsiCo's profitability is good as it is within the top 3 among the competition.

In terms of Financial Health, the trend is generally the same for all companies except for the current ratio of Archer Daniels which had shown an increase in 2018. PepsiCo's ratios are generally in line with competition.

Inventory Days and Cash Conversion Cycle are generally stable for most companies except for Philip Morris which has seen a decline over the past few years. Archer-Daniels total revenue/number of employees has been decreasing compared to the other players which has been relatively stable.

A higher liability asset ratio may lead to higher operating margin

A higher liability asset ratio may lead to higher ROA ratio.

PepsiCo has the lower cost of revenue vs. industry and competition. However, it has one of the highest in terms of SG&A Expenses, Income Tax and Net Income.

PepsiCo's total current and non-current liabilities are higher that industry average, while stockholders' equity are lower than industry average and the other 2 competitors shown in the table. This implies that PepsiCo's financial health is not good.

22.65% of PepsiCo's total assets are invested in Property Plant and Equipment which is significantly higher than the industry average. It has high cash and cash equivalents which implies that PepsiCo is very very liquid.